The Wilmington Island Farmers Market, located at 111 Walthour Road on the site of Wilmington Island Community Church, is set to open for its first season on Sept. 7 and will feature guest speaker and local chef Jamie Deen.

Each week the market will host up to 45 food and non-food vendors, feature a special guest speaker, hold story time for kids and feature local musical acts. Each month the market will also host a guest chef.

The first season will run through Dec. 21 and will be open each Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

In the meantime you can take advantage of the growing popularity of the Forsyth Farmers Market located on the South end of Forsyth Park each Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The England native’s father moved her family to New York when she was 14. After meeting her husband and starting a family of her own, McIncrow took up residence in Cooperstown.

Although her family somewhat struggled financially at the time, McIncrow recalls having just enough money to purchase flowers for her garden each Saturday.

“I’d go to the farmers market and take the girls … and it was awesome — just the whole vibe and the experience of meeting your neighbors. And it was not at a football game or a soccer game where you have to pay attention. You could kind of chill out, take a deep breath and just enjoy the day.”

Six years ago McIncrow and her family moved to Wilmington Island. Although she fell in love with the beauty of the area’s rich marshlands, she always felt like something was missing.

And last summer that something became clear:

“Why don’t we have a farmers market?” she remembers thinking. “Why do we live on such a beautiful island and there’s not one here? We have the economics to support it. We have the population to support it.”

The absence of an island market consumed McIncrow’s thoughts for the next few months. Finally in September she invited 24 friends for drinks in her backyard.

“I’ve got this dream,” she told her unsuspecting friends. “I want to start a farmers market. But it takes a lot of work and I want to know who’s interested in helping.”

Without hesitation: “Tell us what we need to do,” her friends replied.

However, McIncrow’s vision encompassed more than just a site where vendors could supply consumers a variety of fresh foods. She saw the market as a place where a community could gather, get to know their neighbors and enjoy the fellowship.

It would be a place where a variety of community talent, such as school choirs and folk-bands, could showcase their efforts, a place kids could circle up for a good story, and a place where invited guests could teach market-goers how to grow within and give back to their community.

“Our mission is to support and highlight the community in which we live … to highlight local talent, to bring healthy foods to one location and really to provide a positive environment on a Saturday morning for the residents of this island and all the surrounding islands too,” she said.

Although McIncrow found little trouble getting friends to help file the proper paperwork, design promotional materials and implement a business plan, finding a site to host the market led to many closed doors and proved more difficult than she originally imagined.

“We never quit and we never took no for an answer,” she said “And we always knew that we can have a farmers market here.”

Meanwhile Wilmington Island Community Church Elder Jim Bulluck and his fellow church members were painstakingly looking for ways to reach out to the community. After learning of McIncrow’s efforts to erect a farmers market, Bulluck turned to his church’s other leadership and offered McIncrow the church’s five acres of land to host the market.

“We have struggled for years with a way to reach the people on the island and get them together,” Bulluck said “And this seemed to flow perfectly with what we intended and what we wanted to do and that is: to get people together. There are a lot of good people out there but they are all in their own little worlds.

“When Jesus was walking the Earth, he walked to the market place to meet people. And so I told Debby, ‘This is perfect, let’s just call it the marketplace, because it’s where the people gather.’ And it’s the place where people will gather on the island.”

The partnership seems a perfect fit for both the church and the Wilmington Island Farmers Market.

“They (the market) are making very nice additions and improvements to the property at their own expense, which is great for us,” Bulluck said.

Already the organization has raised several thousand dollars through fundraisers and donations by organizations such as Chatham Hospitalist to bring the market to life. Also Savannah-Based EMC Engineering Services surveyed the market’s site and helped McIncrow to design its layout — a service that would otherwise cost $4,000 — free of charge, she said.

McIncrow said the organization plans to build a stage on the church’s property, improve on its parking areas, renovate some of its structures and eventually plans to build a $15,000 play ground on the church’s site.

“We are building this for longevity — to be here for my kids and their kids and everyone else,” McIncrow said. “So when I am in heaven, I will be looking down one Saturday at the market.”